"LUCKY"

Everyone knows that I am a big disney fan. Maybe fan isn't a strong enough word...I am a fanatic. But recently I have become fond of a movie that I never was to keen on while growing up. That movie is:

101 dalmations

It is an adorable movie with cute characters and I especially like one puppy in particular.

Lucky.

Of course there is rollie who is adorable when he says "I can eat a whole elephant" but although that is a cute comment, there is no puppy like Lucky. After a while I was trying to think about why I like this one puppy above all the other 100....and I think I figured out why.

If you aren't familiar with this movie...lucky is the one RIGHT up next to the TV. Actually, there is another clip that I wanted to get where he is actually standing up with his face next to the tv. I have realized he is my favorite because...

I have him right in my home! Every single time the tv is on, boom he goes straight for the it. As if the screen isn't big enough already, he needs to be a foot away! I do move him away so it doesn't hurt his eyes, but truthfully, sometimes I just sit and watch him as he is there. His face just seems to light up even more knowing he is that much closer to the puppets on baby einstein or Handy Manny and his tools. And when his face does that I know

That I am "lucky" to be his mom.

TOP 20...

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE?

UM....YES!!!

(not me, silly, ashleigh!)

This is one of my amazing friends from high school and her husband Ryan Di Lello... and they just made it to the top 20 in SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE!

Ashleigh and I have been friends since junior high and she has always been an incredible person AND dancer. She is the nicest girl you will ever meet and always has been. She and her husband have been dancing on a cruise ship for the past few years and almost as soon as they got back, they auditioned to be on this show...and the rest is history!

So, I am rallying my friends together to support her and her husband and vote for my friend!

It airs tonight at 7:00 so watch it! :)

A BOY AND HIS BENCH

I am grateful for the bench.

With this beautiful fall weather our days have been spent outside in the backyard. We do the usual routine, I set him down on the grass and stretch out my legs like I am going to play a game with him...

but he has a different idea in mind.

Every time I set him down, he bolts to one place

The bench.

It doesn't help that there is dirt all around the bench, but yet, he loves the bench. Maybe its because it is red, or because it seems to be the latest hot spot of the local birds, but he loves it.

So, today before church I thought he looked so cute in his little suit and thought it was perfect

I needed some pictures next to his favorite place around our house...

Also, I know that every single blog post is about Gabe....but hey, look at how cute he is! Why would you want to see anything else?

HALLOWEEN PICTURES

This was a first. Every time we get the camera out, gabe is all giggles and smiles! I haven't had a bad "photo shoot" of him yet! But for some reason, today he was not having it!

NO SMILES!

So, despite our bad luck with his halloween pictures, I think a few of them still came out pretty darn cute! I just hope on actual Halloween we can get some smiling pictures!

We are getting him ready for his fun costume...and no it isn't a scarecrow (even though that is what his nose looks like!) And I am telling you, it took me about 20 minutes to put that nose on! He DOES NOT sit still!

My neighbor has this cute display out in front of her house, so I asked if I can take some fun pictures of gabe...

Or at least they should have been fun!

If you can't tell, he is a Dalmatian puppy. If you didn't know this already then you do now! Gabe ABSOLUTELY LOVES DOGS! Especially when they bark at him! So, we had to dress him up as a puppy this year, there was just no other option

I took this shot as we were heading back into our house to show his "grumpy" face. I wish we could have had at least ONE SMILE! But, nope....maybe next time!

MY BFF'S

Last night I was having a hard time falling asleep. My mind kept going from topic to topic thinking of the most random things, then thinking about something completely insignificant that it made me even more frustrated for being awake thinking about it! But then, as usual, my mind wandered to Gabe. I thought about his life thus far and how great it has been. His giggle when we come into the room. His new expression of delight he does when he is happy. The way he kicks his legs so hard when he doesn't want you do to something...and then I started to think about his future.

"How will he be when he grows up?"

"What kind of person will he be?"

"Will he play sports?"

or other things like

"I wonder who he will become friends with"

and then it happened.

My mind was suddenly filled with a million memories of my childhood. Memories of 4 friends doing one crazy idea after the other. Times where we played "prince and princesses " and since we only had one boy friend, he was our captor and kidnapped us from our happy palace but then he suddenly transformed into the prince and saved us from the evil dungeons. Or there were the times where we rolled pennies down the drive way for hours seeing who's penny could roll the furthest. Or other times when we borrowed a wheel barrow from a neighbor and we squealed with delight as one of us would push the others down the hill. Another time we would ride our bikes to the local grocery store and buy airheads and warheads. Or, if we were really lucky, we bought a King Kong Kone and we raced to see who can eat theirs the fastest. We ran through sprinklers, jumped on the tramp, made up crazy dances to fun music thinking we were the most amazing dancers in the world. We laughed, we cried, we hugged (and even 2 of my friends kissed!) But we were together and that is how it stayed, even now.

Then after thinking about my childhood, I just smiled. Of course gabe will find amazing friends like I have. I know that he will get to have even more adventures then I did, come up with even crazier things to do and have even more fun memories with is friends and that made me happy.

I still have these best friends today. And as cheesy as we get when we are together and as cheesy as it sounds to hear, I will have these best friends forever.

And that thought helped me fall into a deep, restful sleep.

MISCHIEF...

All I can say is

"PICTURES SPEAK A THOUSAND WORDS!"

He has discovered the drawers....BUMMER!

Gabe's little "innocent" face after I saw him kissing the dinosaur!

oh yes, this little stinker is a VERY messy eater

"Please, sir I want some more"

I came in the other day and the whole entire roll of toilet paper was on the floor,

you can't really tell by this picture, but you can see the rest of it in the bottom right corner

Hum, I don't think that is how its supposed to be played with,

but maybe that's just me!

Gabe LOVES his tunnel, back and forth, back and forth

I have to admit it is exhausting for me just to watch it!

P.S. Sorry for the low quality pictures, they were all taken from my phone!

CURTAINS.....FINALLY

So, I know we have lived in our house now for almost 5 months, but I just finished gabe's curtains! (well, I have to admit....my mom helped....A LOT!)

The room still isn't quite done, but you get the idea. Nate installed the bead board and the crown molding, I painted the walls and the bead board, and the rest is just a little bit of whatever.

Also, I want to get a cute table or something in the right corner, what do you think?

This is a close up of what the curtains look like, it is a cute nursery rhyme design with the cat and the fiddle, jack and jill, the dish running away with the spoon and a few others.

GABE'S NEW TRICK

Gabe learned a new trick this past week!

The great thing about him is he responds to us doing this and so he is learning! It makes me think about other things I should start doing with him so he will pick up on that as well. HUM...

IT ALL STARTED WITH THE BENCH...

I went to the store to look for TV consoles

and I came out with this...

and then it spawned an idea.

A crazy idea but if I could get it to work, it would be brilliant!

I instantly drove, bench in stow, to Home Depot where I was going to put my ideas into action. I had no idea if it was even going to look good, I just had to hope.

So with 6 trips to Home Depot, 48 large stones, 130 small stones, 3 lilys, one lilac tree, 48 tulips, a few bumps and bruises, a very sore back and arms later -

I came out with this

It looks good now, but just wait until spring! I planted tulips all around the tree and the lily's that I think will just add some amazing color

also, hopefully by then these will start to grow so you can see them. On the fence you see some Ivy that I have placed in 3 different sections around the fence. Then on the gazebo I have a flowering ivy that will look amazing as it crawls up the side!

Then on the sides I added this retaining wall to make a great entrance into the gazebo.

And to tell you the truth, despite all the hard work it was really fun to do! I am discovering that I actually like this kind of stuff, go figure!